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Collaboration Anticipation: Raf Simons + Sterling Ruby

“…what interests me now is to say that this is not just a collaborative thing, not just asking someone in my field to do the knitwear or the bags. This is all the way, all the way. There is not one shirt, one shoe, one sock that is not from our mutual thinking process.”

Dior’s creative director, Raf Simons, has just announced his upcoming collaboration with artist Sterling Ruby on his new menswear collection, which will be shown in Paris on January 15th. Big deal, right? The two have worked together previously on the interior of the Raf Simons store in Tokyo, and a number of motifs from Simons’ first couture show for Dior were drawn from Ruby’s paintings. And artist-designer collaborations are so commonplace these days that it takes something completely out-of-the-box to turn heads.

Well, leave it to Raf Simons to do just that. “For one season, the brand ‘Raf Simons’ will not exist,” the designer has confirmed, meaning that every single article of clothing and accessory that will be sent down the runway is entirely the product of joint decision-making. In fact, the one-off collection will be known as the Raf Simons/Sterling Ruby collection. Simons challenged himself to find solutions to every concept Ruby ideated, so as to not restrict the artist’s creativity. And Ruby, who recently had begun incorporating textiles into his work, proved a capable accomplice based on a deep understanding of process and construction with those materials.

Congratulations, Raf, on what will likely be the most anticipated collection of the New Year. I, for one, cannot wait.

The interior of Simon’s Tokyo store, the result of a collaboration with Sterling Ruby

A dress from Simons’ first Dior Couture collection, inspired by Ruby’s paintings